It was a great opening for Conan O'Brien on TBS last night. The comedian's eponymous talk show drew big 4.2 million viewers and massive 3.3 million adults 18-49 and 2.5 million in 18-34. This was more than 2/3 of the audience he attracted for his debut on NBC's The Tonight Show in May 2009. Conan's median age was also impressive: 30. “Conan’s audience has been very vocal online, and he clearly made a smooth transition from Twitter to TBS,” said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks. “Conan delivered an extraordinary audience and stands out as the youngest talk show on television." Conan towered over its direct competition, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1.3 million; 690,000 in 18-49) and The Colbert Report (1 million; 550,000)

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/

When I first saw the numbers I figure Conan didn't beat anyone. Since it turns out he beat Leno and Letterman, I have to ask... Are Leno and Letterman's ratings really that low? I guess Late Night shows aren't what they used to be.

Congrats to Conan, though. I love his new show.

I didn't even miss Max.

I'm not surprised that Conan did that well in the ratings with his premiere episode. I'm sure many people tuned in out of curiosity to see what his new show would be like. What will be interesting will be to see if he can maintain those ratings or anything close to it going forward.